The sunshine in mid-May was much hotter than expected. Wonderlust Korea 2026, a global wellness lifestyle festival, took place in Mapo-gu, Seoul at the Culture Depot for two days, May 16 and 17. In the place where round oil tanks were reborn into a civic cultural space, a wide plaza under the slopes of Mangbongsan hosted a variety of events—yoga, meditation, sound healing, and more.
A Global Festival—But the Event Info Was Lacking
Because it was a worldwide global event, there was a strong expectation that it would be quite large in scale. However, even though the festival was only a few days away, it was extremely difficult to find noticeable guidance beyond the official website and Instagram. Even detailed event information was not properly available on the website or in any comprehensive page. The lineup, timetable, and village class information were scattered across Instagram feeds and stories. The village classes operated through prior reservation via the Obud app. If you didn’t check popular classes in advance, it was hard to find a spot. For a first-time visitor, the official Instagram account was essentially the only real guide.
A New Stage at the Culture Depot, Between the Round Tanks and Mangbongsan
Since Wonderlust Korea first arrived in Korea in 2019 as the first in Asia, the festival’s stage in 2026 has been set up at the Culture Depot, following previous locations such as Nanjido Hangang Park, Gwanghwamun, Olympic Park, and Seoull Forest. Behind the scene stood T5 Imagine-Filled Culture Tanks like a backdrop, and in front of them, the plaza with white tents lined up in a row was the heart of the event.
Yoga Mats in the Sun, Shoulders Glowing a Deep Tan
The strongest impression over both days was the sunshine. Just standing for a moment felt like your skin was getting cooked, and the concrete plaza had almost no shade. Still, right in front of the main stage, you could see tons of people doing yoga—receiving the sunlight directly as they participated. When hundreds of people stretched their arms in sync guided by the instructor’s cues, the light seemed to spread over shoulders and backs that had been bronzed. Instead of avoiding the sun, the atmosphere felt as if accepting it as part of the practice had spread across the entire plaza. Those who already had naturally healthy bronzed bodies seemed to enjoy this sunshine even more.
A Weekend Enjoyed Like a Picnic
For people who found the intense sunshine too much, they naturally took spots at the edges—on the lawn and under the shade of street trees. Even beneath ginkgo and maple trees, you could see people following along with the main stage movements in different places. On one side, people laid out mats and looked up at the sky, while on the other, you could also see them enjoying conversations and picnicking with friends who had dressed in matching yoga outfits.
The ages and clothing styles varied widely, but you could also see many of the fashion Insta-visuals that yogis love. Bratops and cover-ups, short-sleeve T-shirts, wide yoga pants, and training pants all mixed together on one screen. It didn’t feel limited to those who were professional practitioners only; it also seemed close to a space where everyone stayed at their own pace—friends who came together, people visiting for the first time, families accompanied by parents, and those who came just to enjoy the vibe.
We Ran an Immersive Meditation Device Experience Zone for E·WAN
The E·WAN immersive meditation device showcased meditation assistive technology that combines sound waves and vibration. Many people wore headphones and tried it hands-on right in front of a panel organized around four keywords: grounding, resonance, flow, and presence. Quite a number of people tried the meditation device, and some even said they wanted to experience it more deeply and bought it on-site.
There was a booth where you could experience a Gong, and some attendees also took time to feel the gong’s vibrations firsthand.
Choose Your Plan F. The booth drew attention with a wall decorated with pink gerbera flowers and lily-of-the-valley illustrations under the tagline “Pick your own flowers.” The campaign that laid out AMH testing and egg freezing side by side as “choices that help you know who you are right now” and “choices that prepare for the future” delivered a clear message: it brought women’s reproductive health into the realm of wellness. The route connecting the one-minute test and support information via QR code was also well organized.
A handpan artist named Hatakehu-nim, wearing a straw hat and sunglasses, was energetically playing the handpan for the team showcasing acro yoga. However, on the day I visited—unlike Saturday—all meditation-related events, including singing bowl sound baths, were clustered together, and I wasn’t able to experience a meditation event, which left me a bit disappointed.
Where Recovery Became the Content: The Recovery Zone
This year’s freshest attempt was the Recovery Zone set up beyond the main stage. At the entrance, an entire blue city bus with “SAUNABUS” written on it was placed as-is. Like the phrase “Starting hot again today,” the bus—whose rides had stopped—turned into a mobile sauna, becoming a space to warm your body after exercise.
Next to the sauna bus, there was an ice bath zone with four black circular tubs arranged in a line. Participants wearing workout clothes dipped their shoulders into the cold water, and the facilitator guided their breathing from the side. The contrast recovery routine—moving from sauna to ice bath—reflects an emerging trend in the global wellness scene, and you could see more places starting to introduce it domestically as well.
Programs Beyond Yoga: An Atmosphere Even Beginners Don’t Feel Burdened By
The programs didn’t stop at yoga. There were a variety of activities, including Barre Fit, barre, meditation, music programs, ancient exercise, and step boxes. However, aside from the yoga done on the stage, the rest—like sound baths and strength-focused classes at the power house—were held indoors, so there was no way to really know what was happening from outside. It felt like each participant was checking it on the Wonderlust Instagram and then joining in on their own.
Even though the heat kept getting more intense, like it was burning the skin with the hot sunshine, the people doing yoga didn’t seem to care. They showed strong enthusiasm by taking part together in a yoga session lasting about an hour. You could clearly see how many people truly cared about yoga and had passion for it—and that the wellness trend is rising in Korea too.
What Was Disappointing—Yet a Time When I Felt the Strength of the Wellness Trend
To be honest, there were definitely things that felt disappointing. The entry system involved receiving entry wristbands, but because the event site was open in every direction, crowd control was essentially meaningless, and the line between those who had entered and those who had passed through was unclear. Although the village registration fee was a high cost ticket over 100,000 won, the number of booths and the scale of partner brands were smaller than last year. On top of that, given the near-summer heat, there also weren’t enough shaded areas and water supply routes, which left many concerns. Before the event, it seemed necessary to improve how expectations were raised—through more diverse promotions and events—so that participants who didn’t register for the village could also enjoy and interact more fully with the festival for a sufficient amount of time. I found myself thinking that if it had clearly shown its identity not just as a yoga-specific event, but as a wellness festival with a more complex set of experiences, it might have drawn even more people’s attention.
Even so, it was clear that it served as a time for many people who love yoga to gather and share their own passion and enjoyment. As the wellness trend is getting attention from more and more people and creating an important pillar of lifestyle, I think Wonderlust in Korea still has enough strength to be worth looking forward to. Next year, I hope there will be even more events in diverse active-meditation categories, leading to more collaborations—so the festival can grow into an even more colorful event with a wider variety of wellness-related booths and brand booths.